Agencies are ready to help

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Ken Norton, Erik G. Riera and Jay Couture

We are here to help … help is available.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those families so tragically impacted by last week’s school shooting in Connecticut. The shock waves from that incident are felt strongly in New Hampshire and around the country and continue to reverberate through our schools, across our kitchen tables and in our workplaces and no doubt will continue for some time to come.

All of us struggle to make sense of such a horrific act of violence, terror and destruction. Our minds try and make sense of what is often a senseless act. Media coverage often focuses on the perpetrator of the violent act, trying to again piece together some explanation as to why this tragedy occurred, and in this case offering questions and speculations about medical or emotional problems that may have contributed to the tragedy that unfolded in Connecticut. The reality, however, is that we may never know why this happened. Even if at some point it became clear that the shooter did have a mental illness — that would not necessarily explain how or why this happened. Although the media often paint a much different picture, research tells us that most people with mental illness are not violent that they are more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators.

For those of us with children, the search for answers becomes that much more intense as we try to find ways to explain this to our children. There are things we can do to help our children cope with what has happened, and address the worries and concerns they may be experiencing. Talk to your kids about what happened — ask them what they have heard on the news, in school or from their friends. This is often an opportunity to correct misinformation or to address fears and concerns that they may have. It is ok to let your children know that people in this world sometimes do bad things, and we don’t often know why. Let them know as parents we will do everything to protect them, and our schools will also do the same. It is normal to feel sad or anxious, or have difficulty concentrating or sleeping after a tragic event like this one. If those feelings continue, help is available from your local community mental health center, primary care provider or one of the private therapists in your area.

Tragedies such as this one can also affect us as adults, and we can find ourselves experiencing the same feelings of helplessness, having difficulty concentrating and feeling sad. If you or someone you know is having these types of difficulties and they are affecting your work, your relationships, or are not getting better, please reach out for help from your local community mental health center (CMHC), or a therapist in your community. If you have a friend, or loved one that you think needs help, we know that reaching out in kindness can have a huge impact and even save the life of someone who may be at risk for or contemplating suicide. We need to be as comfortable aiding or suggesting to someone we see is in emotional pain or mental distress that they seek help as we are for someone with a physical injury or illness.

Whether or not mental illness was a contributing factor to the tragedy in Connecticut is something we may never know. What we do know is that despite the availability of and high rates of success for treatment of mental illness, many people never seek treatment. Fear, shame and negative attitudes about mental illness are some of the major factors which inhibit people from seeking help. We see this, for example, in our returning Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars where only 53% who indicate they have some type of psychological injury report they have sought help. We see it in older adults many of whom were raised to believe that mental illness is a character flaw or a weakness and won’t come in for treatment. Although there has been a great deal of progress in younger generations, we see it for young children whose parents are afraid their child will be labeled or ostracized.

This is part of the real tragedy regarding mental illness, especially since research also indicates that like other medical illnesses, the earlier it is detected and treated the more quickly symptoms remit and the recovery process begins.

Every year, highly skilled staff from the CMHCs provide care to over 51,000 New Hampshire residents. While we readily admit that New Hampshire’s mental health system faces significant challenges, we take pride in the services we are able to provide. Please use these services if you need them.

In addition to the local community mental health centers, there are also telephone resources which include Headrest in Lebanon NH, a nationally certified crisis call center for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255. They also operate a teen and young adult line 1-800-639-6095. Samaritans in Keene offers a befriending line 603-357-5505. NAMI NH, The National Alliance On Mental Illness offers an information and resource line 1-800-242-6264, a website with information about mental illness, local support groups and educational programs, and information about how to cope with and or talk to children about the recent school shooting in Connecticut www.naminh.org. The Office of Consumer and Family Affairs at the Bureau of Behavioral Health can also help connect you with local resources in your community and can be reached by calling 271-5045.

New Hampshire residents should also be assured that should any type of disaster either natural or man-made occur in our state that the Department of Health and Human Services has a very strong Disaster Behavioral Health Response Team with over 500 specially trained volunteers.

Lastly, it is important that we all practice good self-care skills. When a tragedy like this occurs it wears on us all the time and can leave us emotionally drained, irritable and tired. We need to be extra aware of this given the additional stress of the holidays. This means getting plenty of rest, eating well, exercising, avoiding excessive use of drugs or alcohol, and making sure we are well connected with friends and family who can provide support.

Ken Norton is the Executive Director of NAMI New Hampshire. Erik G. Riera is the Administrator of the NH Bureau of Behavioral Health. Jay Couture is the Executive Director of Seacoast Mental Health Center.

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